Position Paper - Afghanistan - 2009 - Shanghai Cooperation Organization -

The nation of Afghanistan acknowledges the vital importance that sustainable energy has on the global community in the upcoming century. We, as a collective Central Asian region, have seen an enormous amount of exponential growth in the past few decades. With this increase in power comes an increase in the need for energy, and with that a serious caveat. To remain energy efficient in the upcoming years, as a body the SCO must set the standard on sustainable energy resources.
With all of the fecund resources in this area, we are in a position in which we should be able to sustain ourselves if we can form some sort of energy coalition. It is our responsibility as a body to work together to find some way in which we can share energy while allowing countries to profit off of their naturally inherited resources.
Indeed, a sharing of resources would be ideal; however it shall never come at the cost of infringing upon another nation’s sovereignty. Afghanistan is more than willing to work with neighboring states to create an efficient system of sharing energy resources; however unwanted interference is unacceptable, as our own nation knows all too well.
We propose to the body to look at a hybrid of energy sources, from more environmentally friendly options to coal and oil. We cannot depend solely on one resource. Afghanistan hopes that one day all countries will be able to sustain themselves, however in our current situation amiable relationships in which countries are willing to work together are our best chance of success.